[Alexnova]

Anyone get more exposure to the Ragnarok 2 at AXPONA? Curious how it stacks up to the old Raggy as a headphone amp.

 

[joe]

Guys, I removed a few posts. Let’s calm down and be civil with each other.

 

[Mike-WI]

Anyone get more exposure to the Ragnarok 2 at AXPONA? Curious how it stacks up to the old Raggy as a headphone amp.

I played with it twice.
It is slightly larger and heavier. The remote and on device controls are better.
I don't see any negatives. As I posted before the price will be the same for Rag2 as Rag1 ($1499) and give you options of adding additional modules (DAC or phono).

 

[Derrick Swart]

I played with it twice.
It is slightly larger and heavier. The remote and on device controls are better.
I don't see any negatives. As I posted before the price will be the same for Rag2 as Rag1 ($1499) and give you options of adding additional modules (DAC or phono).

1499$? That is cheaper than the original as far i can remember.

 

[bochawa]

The Schiit/Salk room sounded good, both digital and turntable sources. On the Sol, there were playing the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack and Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd sounded great - the soundstage really wowed me on that one, even though I wasn't sitting in the sweet spot. On the digital side, they were very amenable to requests, although limited to what was in the Salk Streamer's library. Rock, Funk, Pop, Blues, and a little classical - it all sounded good. When the room cleared out for a moment, I asked for something heavy and was treated to Black Sabbath - War Pigs. Very impactful sound from the Salk Song3 Beat speakers. The wood veneer was African Chenchen with bookmatched grain - very dramatic and beautiful speakers. I sent a picture to my girlfriend and her first comment was how beautiful they were. It was a pleasure to be in that room - I must have spent close to an hour in there. Well done, Schiit and Salk.

 

[Alexnova]

1499$? That is cheaper than the original as far i can remember.

The original Rag retailed for $1699.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

I had a nice trip to the Schiitr yesterday. James was there and took great care of me.....{snip}..... He’d never seen a Freya in black before, but they dug through the catacombs and found one for me, even though Freyas are out of stock until the end of the month. It probably has some sordid history that I don’t want to know about, but I have a 5 year warranty and a black Freya, so I am very happy.

I'm happy to report that Schiit Audio's NOT the only company that's willing to accomodate newcomers like me to the hobby. These little ad hoc customizations add to their overall reputation of being UN-douchebaggy. I'm happy for you, @QueYo . No joke.

Try this one

Righto!

Guys, I removed a few posts. Let’s calm down and be civil with each other.

...Thanks, @joe . We, as a clowder, are better than that.

The Schiit/Salk room sounded good, both digital and turntable sources. On the Sol, there were playing the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack and Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd sounded great - the soundstage really wowed me on that one, even though I wasn't sitting in the sweet spot. On the digital side, they were very amenable to requests, although limited to what was in the Salk Streamer's library. Rock, Funk, Pop, Blues, and a little classical - it all sounded good. When the room cleared out for a moment, I asked for something heavy and was treated to Black Sabbath - War Pigs. Very impactful sound from the Salk Song3 Beat speakers. The wood veneer was African Chenchen with bookmatched grain - very dramatic and beautiful speakers. I sent a picture to my girlfriend and her first comment was how beautiful they were. It was a pleasure to be in that room - I must have spent close to an hour in there. Well done, Schiit and Salk.

Thanks for the rundown @bochawa & the kiosk images. This show was in Chicago, right? Damn. How much interest would there be in having the travelling-Schittr-Schiit-Show roll into Toronto? Ah well...

 

[Alexnova]

I hope someone who has heard the Lyr 3 is able to make a quick comparison between that amp and the Rag 2. Probably too loud at the expo to do any serious evaluation, but Lyr 3 is the best headamp Schiit has ever made yet.

The Lyr 3 is slightly better than the Rag 1 at microdetail and microdynamics. It has more clarity too, even more than the Jot. The Lyr 3 comes pretty close to Rag 1 macro but lacks in speed. Still at ~$1000 less than the Rag 1, it's a superb amp.

 

[yonson]

I played with it twice.
It is slightly larger and heavier. The remote and on device controls are better.
I don't see any negatives. As I posted before the price will be the same for Rag2 as Rag1 ($1499) and give you options of adding additional modules (DAC or phono).

Here's hoping that since it has 2 slots they build a hardware balanced multibit dac module (that would utilize both slots) to take advantage of them!

 

[yonson]

1499$? That is cheaper than the original as far i can remember.

Yeah, pretty sure it was $1699 not too long ago, Jason made an announcement on here about lowering the price.

 

[Mike-WI]

The original Rag retailed for $1699.

1499$? That is cheaper than the original as far i can remember.

Yes. It was $1699. Now Rag1 is $1499.
So, the Rag2 is a great deal. At AXPONA someone from Schiit told me the Rag2 is cheaper to make, so that is why the new price.

 

[bochawa]

I hope someone who has heard the Lyr 3 is able to make a quick comparison between that amp and the Rag 2. Probably too loud at the expo to do any serious evaluation, but Lyr 3 is the best headamp Schiit has ever made yet.

The Lyr 3 is slightly better than the Rag 1 at microdetail and microdynamics. It has more clarity too, even more than the Jot. The Lyr 3 comes pretty close to Rag 1 macro but lacks in speed. Still at ~$1000 less than the Rag 1, it's a superb amp.

To my ears, the Lyr 3 / Aeon Flow Open sounded better than the Ragnarok 2 / Ether 2. The Lyr 3 was equipped with the new Tung-Sol tube. This was my first quick impression on a noisy show flow, so take it with a grain of salt. It does have me leaning towards getting separate components versus the integrated amp.

 

[Alexnova]

bochawa, can you possibly give us a description of what you heard from the Rag 2? Decay, transients, speed, clairty, etc. "Sounds better" doesn't tell us much.

Jason dubbed the Nexus topology as their “holy grail” circuit, so I'm super curious its implementation in Rag 2.

 

[Mike-WI]

bochawa, can you possibly give us a description of what you heard from the Rag 2? Decay, transients, speed, clairty, etc. "Sounds better" doesn't tell us much.

Jason dubbed the Nexus topology as their “holy grail” circuit, so I'm super curious its implementation in Rag 2.

To my ears, the Lyr 3 / Aeon Flow Open sounded better than the Ragnarok 2 / Ether 2. The Lyr 3 was equipped with the new Tung-Sol tube. This was my first quick impression on a noisy show flow, so take it with a grain of salt. It does have me leaning towards getting separate components versus the integrated amp.

I tried listening to all the setups (minus Vali 2 and Fulla 2) and thought it is very difficult to make comparisons.
I'm not sure if the Rag2 had the MB DAC module installed. I forgot to look.
Background noise is high and too many variables - music selection may vary by station, headphones, DAC, etc.
I really need to visit the Shiitr or just buy and play with coming out of the same source and DAC.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Try this one

Alright, here's my plan.... as a 49-year old 2-3rd generation Canadian (mum's a Saskatchewan Heinz-57 Euroblend + dad's a WW2 Estonian war refugee):

I'm starting off with Ravi Shankar. His "best of album". a 2-disc, ADD-Sony BMG Columia Legacy Records disc; co-produced & mastered by Darcy M. Proper; tape research (digging it up in India) by Darren Salmieri & Mike Kull; compilation produced by Didier C. Deutsch, Steve Berkowitz. Result = ... ... ... ... poof... mind blown.

I've heard a rumour... Mr. Shankar was at a European or US-recital hall... he was tuning up his sitar. The audience went bonkers. He thanked the audience... and asked the hall to be patient before the REAL music began.



btw - edit - his daughter has an album too, right?